Thursday, July 23, 2009

There is debate about whether we had genocide in Darfur or not, but certainly in my mind, and the mind of many, many people, I think there is very little doubt that what went on in Darfur in 2003 and the early part of 2004 was certainly genocide. We can argue the words, but that would be no consolation to those people who are affected. So I subsequently went on to speak about it publicly, having tried the various diplomatic routes and avenues, and I soon found myself hauled onto a plane out of Khartoum. And as I reflected back on it, I thought to myself that there I was presiding over the first genocide of the 21st century – it is a place in history you don’t wish to have. Dr. Mukesh Kapila, Moving from Words to Action: The Responsibility to Protect, Aegis Trust, 1-25-06

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, visiting a Rwandan genocide memorial on Saturday, expressed regret for his "personal failure" to prevent the 1994 slaughter of 800,000 people. Reuters, 7-23-05

Calm down. I spent the 1990s as ardent defender of Bill Clinton. I recall that grim period, in the dark stench of the Starr Chamber, before the tide turned against the Federalist Society's Inquisitor, when there were very few die-hards left who were not members of the Congressional Black Caucus, but I was among them. And although I am under no illusions about the impact of bad policy choices such as the Telecommunications Act of 1996, I admire what Bill Clinton did with the hand life dealt him, I have respect for his political brilliance, and I feel empathy for his human foibles.

Indeed, in Samantha's book you will learn that Wes Clarke was a voice in crying in the wilderness for humanitarian intervention concerning Rwanda. (Yes, there are reasons that neither Wes Clarke nor Howard Dean are in the Obama administration; and although I strongly support the Obama administration, none of those reasons are good.)

But I digress, the point is that 800,000 Rwandans died in the genocide of 1994. And in the fourteen years since then, Bill Clinton, may the Goddess bless him, has made a loud noise about his "personal failure" in that crisis. And yet, since 2003, at least 300,000 Darfuris have died in a genocide. So where has he been?

Somehow we are supposed to conclude that the difference between 800,000 in one year, and 300,000 people (at least) in five years is the difference between genocide and something less than genocide. Such rationalizations would be laughable if they were not so incredibly insensitive.

Furthermore, I noticed that President Clinton was recently appointed a special UN envoy to Haiti. Now, the people of Haiti have suffered terribly -- for centuries (and if you don't know much about their plight, Noam Chomsky would be happy to bring you up to speed). I hope he is of help to the Haitians, BUT I have to ask this question, why has President Clinton avoided the opportunity find a way to do in his personal life, what he could not do in the highest office in the land, i.e., make a stand, even if simply symbolic, for the people of Darfur, who are struggling against a genocide in plain sight of all the great nations? "If Clinton could not do anything from the Oval Office," you might ask, "what do you expect him to do as a private citizen?" Well, he is not a "private citizen," he is a very public citizen. And as such he has more freedom than he had in the Oval Office, even if his wife is Secretary of State.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if Bill Clinton got himself arrested in protest of this government's lack of action on the genocide in Darfur? (Five members of the U.S. House of Representatives did just that in April of this year.) What a story it would be. Vernon Jordan and him could go together. His Secret Service detail could work out an appropriate protocol. And Chelsea could bail him out. It would be a powerful statement, an extraordinary piece of theater, and a platform, which, however fleeting, would be more persuasive than even the bully pulpit itself.

I know it won't happen. But it should. It would raise awareness. And I know people's minds don't work that way. But it would do him good. I dare say it would unleash something in his soul.

So you and I slog on ...

About 15% of Words of Power posts to this point (not counting those with embedded code for You Tube music) have related to the Crisis in Darfur. About 30% of Words of Power posts to this point have focused on Climate Crisis; and another 30% addressed the Bush-Cheney abomination. The balance of my posts so far sort out into other human rights crises (e.g., Burma, Congo, Tibet, etc.) and other sustainability issues (e.g., water, food, UN Millennium Goals, etc.)

If you had asked me in 2005, I would not have expected Darfur to be such a major aspect of this on-line project. I would have thought my long-held (and very personal) concern for child soldiers throughout the world should occupy more of this space.

But to my surprise all of Darfur forced itself on me, not just its child soldiers, all of it, particularly its women and girls. All of Darfur strode out of the core of my psyche, and stood erect on the high ground of my conscience; and this suffering multitude refuses to leave me alone.

I write to you about Darfur not as a "bleeding heart" or a "do-gooder" or a dreamy-eyed idealist; quite the contrary, I write to you about Darfur because of what it tells me about the prospects for our own survival, both physically and psychologically.

If we fail the test of Darfur, and believe me friend, as a great nation, as an alliance of great nations, and as a species, we are, indeed, failing it, then our own options dwindle and our own odds diminish.

Of course, with a political establishment that has its head so far up the wallet of the health insurance lobby that it cannot rescue its own people from a bottomless pit, and a mainstream news media so beholden to the interests of big business that it cannot discern between science and pseudo-science enough to carry out its role in informing the citizenry of the looming potential for planetary catastrophe, why should I look for anything more?

Well, where there is life there is hope.

Have I been arrested in protest of the genocide in Darfur? No. If I were to cross that threshold I would probably make more of an impact by fasting, as Mia Farrow and others have done, and I would have to get pretty close to death before I got any ink at all. I will just continue doing what I do on the inner and outer planes. Can Bill Clinton say the Crisis in Darfur accounts for 15% of his awareness-raising work over the past three years? I know he has been working on his Global Initiative, which is an umbrella for a lot of worthy projects, but considering what he himself perceives as his own "personal failure" in Rwanda, he might have been more out front and unrestrained on Darfur specifically.

Meanwhile, if you have been reading the Words of Power Crisis in Darfur Updates, you probably know the name of Dr. Mukesh Kapila, the former UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan.

Participating on UN Watch panel concerning “Women in Conflict and the Human Rights Situation in Sudan," organized along side a session of the "UN Human Rights Council" (yes, I put it in quotes to indicate its lack of credibility), Dr. Kapila made a powerful statement articulating "Seven Excuses for Inaction" and "Two False Dichotomies" about the Crisis in Darfur.

It is a must read, but I have excerpted the lead points here, and provided a link to the full text:

The Seven Excuses of Inaction for Darfur1. Cynicism ... a general feeling that, sure, Sudan has got many troubles, it’s a country in conflict, a country that has always been in conflict, a conflict of many decades, and what do you expect in a place like that? ...2. Denial ... “Surely the situation is not as bad as you make it out to be,” they argue. “You’re exaggerating to gain attention.” ... 3. Prevarication ... “You have to be patient, it takes time, these are complicated matters, and in any case it’s best if the people of Sudan, the people of Darfur find their own solution to their own problems.” 4. Caution ... “Sudan is not a small country, it’s got a very complex past, a very complicated political and social dynamic. If we intervene it will only make matters worse; let us think carefully and long before we actually do anything.” 5. Distraction ... You know, we have many other things to do. There is the Middle East, there is Iraq, there in North Korea, there is Iran, there is Myanmar, there is climate change, there is HIV and AIDS, there are Millenium Development Goals, there are cyclones, there is a financial crisis ...6. Buck Passing ... you go to London, you go to Washington, you go to the Security Council, you go to Brussels, you go wherever you like, and they say, “But you know, why is it that we always have to deal with these sort of issues? ...7. Evasion of Responsibility ... “Oh, we have brought this to the attention of the Security Council, the President, the Prime Minister, the Pope, the Commission, the Council, the Committee, the whatever-you-like ... So let’s see what they decide.”So, ladies and gentlemen, my message to you, to UN Watch, to Human Rights Watch, to any other Watches that there are, is that watching is not enough. That actually unless you have some practical ways to address these seven reasons-cynicism, denial, prevarication, caution, distraction, buck-passing and evasion of responsibility-then I’m afraid we will continue to be a side event, we will continue to be tolerated in the margins ...

False Dichotomy 1: Human Rights vs. Humanitarianism ... What is a true humanitarian? Is a humanitarian simply one who, when someone is suffering, hands out a piece of bread, as an act of charity, or is a true humanitarian one who asks the question, why are the people suffering?If you go back to the original roots of humanitarianism, the issue of dignity far overrides the issue of charity. And if that’s the case, then it is true that people who want to achieve their rights have to fight for them. I’m not here to make any political statement about fighting in the armed conflict sense of the term, but I do mean fighting for the rights of people all over the world, for their economic and social and cultural rights.So you see where I stand. I would say that if there’s a debate between the humanitarians or the human-rightists, then it must be the human-rightists that must prevail. Otherwise, the suffering of Darfur will simply go on ...

False Dichotomy 2: Justice vs. Peace ... Not a single peace agreement has ever succeeded unless there has been a foundation addressing the issue of accountability. So I would say to watchers generally that one has to bring these issues together: the human rights issue, the humanitarian issue, the justice issue, and systematically address the obstacles and excuses people give. And to do that in a forensic and decisive manner. Only by doing that in a very targeted manner will we actually make progress against the vast forces and the resources that are aligned together against the cause of peace, justice and human rights in Darfur.

If the Senate doesn't pass a bill to cut global warming, Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer says, there will be dire results: droughts, floods, fires, loss of species, damage to agriculture, worsening air pollution and more. She says there's a huge upside, however, if the Senate does act: millions of clean-energy jobs, reduced reliance on foreign oil and less pollution for the nation's children ... The stakes couldn't be higher as she faces one of the toughest high-profile acts of her lengthy career: getting Congress to sign off on historic legislation to lower greenhouse-gas emissions..McClatchy News, 7-11-09

Howard Dean: The thing I love about Obama’s plan is it’s politically practical ... We’re going to allow people under sixty-five to sign up for what people over sixty-five have. And you make the choice.” And what we’re all betting is that the private—and I agree with his comments about the private insurance industry. Their behavior has been reprehensible, cutting people off when they have illnesses and charging huge—executive salaries of the big three are over $20 million. The guy that runs CMS, which has a billion claims a year, probably makes $150,000 or $200,000. I mean, it’s ridiculous. Let the American people choose. If they make the choice themselves, they will invest emotionally in this system, and I think that the insurance industry will be forced to behave in a much better way, or they will be put out of business. But it will be themselves that’s putting themselves out of business, and the American people, not the Congress, doing it.Democracy Now!, 7-17-09

While the Economic Royalists, & Their Enforcers in Politics & Media, Live the High Life, Will "We, the People" Fade into Oblivion?

By Richard Power,

This afternoon, I left my eyrie on one of the great hills of San Francisco, and walked down through Chinatown to North Beach for a double espresso at Cafe Trieste. Then I walked back up into the gray sky, caressed by a chill wind.

Along the way, I immersed myself in the surging throngs of tourists on holiday, and local families on a weekend outing. They crowded the narrow streets, and huddled around the gift shops, grasping for the meaning of this place in meaningless trinkets from somewhere else, or shopping for modest groceries to sustain a humble home.

Weaving my way through these clusters of dreamers, I brushed against old age, infancy and adolescence. I opened my ears to the multilingual cacophony, and opened my mind to the fleeting thoughts and feelings that rose up all around me.

Now an understanding, ripe and swollen, hangs low from the inner Tree of Knowledge.

I heard it all, I felt it all, but I cannot describe it to you, except to say that it was overflowing with every sort of personal desire and every sort of personal hope. It was intimate and earnest, but it was all centered on the life of the family, the bonds of companionship, the realities of work and the mind candy of the popular culture.

None of them were thinking about the Climate Crisis. None of them were thinking about Darfur, or the Congo. None of them were even thinking about the Healthcare Crisis, or how it impacts their own vulnerable lives.

But I felt only admiration and awe.

I do not fault them for what has befallen this nation and the world.

The most massive protests in the history of this nation and the world preceded the launch of the foolish military adventure in Iraq. The US political establishment ignored it, and the US mainstream news media willfully underestimated the size of those crowds. "We, the people" has become (at best) only marginally relevant to the decision-making process in Beltwayistan.

What I heard on those streets this afternoon was simply the music of humanity, which has been playing uninterruptedly since the dawn of time, and will continue until whatever end befalls this experiment in sentience.

What passes for discourse about the Healthcare Crisis in Beltwayistan and on the public air waves is revelatory in its willful inanity and malicious duplicity.

If the US political establishment refuses to junk a healthcare insurance system that has failed the populace, and ripped it off for an obscene profit in the process, because doing so would disrupt the good life and the campaign financing that makes it all possible, how can it be expected to junk a energy paradigm that threatens all life on the planet?

If the US mainstream news media refuses to expose the cruelty and greed of the health insurance racket, and refuses to highlight the superiority of European and Canadian health care systems, because of the inter-locking relationships among the captains of industry, how can it be expected to sound the alarm for urgent action on the greatest threat of all?

Damn them.

If this year ends without bold action on both healthcare and climate/energy signed into law, then all the gentle, personal dreams of the throngs I passed through this afternoon will be significantly diminished at best, and more than likely shattered into sharp, hurtful pieces sooner than later.

Here is an excerpt from a profound and profoundly disturbing piece by that brilliant literary provocateur, Arundathi Roy; the task at hand is to answer her with powerful deeds not empty rhetoric, it will be extraordinarily difficult, and if it not done soon, it will be impossible:

The question here, really, is what have we done to democracy? What have we turned it into? What happens once democracy has been used up? When it has been hollowed out and emptied of meaning? What happens when each of its institutions has metastasised into something dangerous? What happens now that democracy and the free market have fused into a single predatory organism with a thin, constricted imagination that revolves almost entirely around the idea of maximising profit? Is it possible to reverse this process? Can something that has mutated go back to being what it used to be? ... What we need today, for the sake of the survival of this planet, is long-term vision. Can governments whose very survival depends on immediate, extractive, short-term gain provide this? Could it be that democracy, the sacred answer to our short-term hopes and prayers, the protector of our individual freedoms and nurturer of our avaricious dreams, will turn out to be the endgame for the human race? Could it be that democracy is such a hit with modern humans precisely because it mirrors our greatest folly – our nearsightedness? Our inability to live entirely in the present (like most animals do) combined with our inability to see very far into the future makes us strange in-between creatures, neither beast nor prophet. Our amazing intelligence seems to have outstripped our instinct for survival. We plunder the earth hoping that accumulating material surplus will make up for the profound, unfathomable thing that we have lost.Arundathi Roy, Into the Inferno: Hollow Language and Hollow Democracies, New Statesman (via Common Dreams), 7-16-09

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Four knowledgeable sources tell NEWSWEEK that [AG Holder] is now leaning toward appointing a prosecutor to investigate the Bush administration's brutal interrogation practices, something the president has been reluctant to do. While no final decision has been made, an announcement could come in a matter of weeks, say these sources, who decline to be identified discussing a sensitive law-enforcement matter. Such a decision would roil the country, would likely plunge Washington into a new round of partisan warfare, and could even imperil Obama's domestic priorities, including health care and energy reform. Holder knows all this, and he has been wrestling with the question for months. "I hope that whatever decision I make would not have a negative impact on the president's agenda," he says. "But that can't be a part of my decision." Newsweek, 7-11-09

My prediction, then? Not a V, not a U. But an X. This economy can't get back on track because the track we were on for years -- featuring flat or declining median wages, mounting consumer debt, and widening insecurity, not to mention increasing carbon in the atmosphere -- simply cannot be sustained.The X marks a brand new track -- a new economy. What will it look like? Nobody knows. All we know is the current economy can't "recover" because it can't go back to where it was before the crash. So instead of asking when the recovery will start, we should be asking when and how the new economy will begin.Robert Reich, When Will The Recovery Begin?, Common Dreams, 7-10-09

Well, there are two ways it contains costs. The first is that, of course, it's a huge pool. The second is, in terms of containing costs for ordinary Americans, [Medicare] can't and won't engage in the kinds of things that private insurance companies do. They don't have bureaucrats who second-guess doctors and make bad medical decisions. They don't pay extraordinary amounts of money for repeat procedures - at least they do that less than the private sector does. They don't pay chief executives in the seven-, eight- or nine-figure range for their salaries. They don't have to advertise.So it's much cheaper and more effective and efficient to control costs if you have a large public option. And the other thing about this is that the American people get to choose. You know, the Republicans are screaming and yelling about socialized medicine. Well, let the American people choose - if they don't like it they won't choose it.Howard Dean, "This Is Ridiculous. We're 60 Years Behind the Times" on Fixing Health Care, AlterNet via Truthout, 7-8-09

A Call for Unity -- Strong, Loud, Pushy, Relentless, Quarrelsome Unity; Make No Mistake -- They are Still "Hunting the President"

By Richard Power

Whatever AG Holder decides, and I hope he decides to appoint a special prosecutor, the next few months are going to be very intense.

Recently, in deepening frustration with some of the Obama administration's decisions (both strategic and tactical), I sat myself down to watch The Hunting of The President again. And I urge you to do the same.

Don't get me wrong. Be loud, very loud. Be relentless. Push hard. Burn up the wires, and fill up the air waves. Make them do the right thing.

But, at the same time, understand what progressives (and genuine centrists) are really up against in this country.

The book, Hunting of the President, written by Joe Conason and Gene Lyons, was one of the most important books of the great left and center uprising that began in response to the Starr Chamber pogrom of the late 1990s, and reached its zenith in the 2008 struggle to liberate the White House (stolen in 2000 and 2004) from the clutches of the Cult formerly known as the Republican Party.

The documentary film based on Hunting of the President is a powerful teaching tool, and a vital self-reset device, for those who refuse to let the vision of the Founders be swallowed up in greed, ignorance and fear.

Do you remember what happened to Susan McDougal? You really should refresh your memory if you don't. Because this struggle against madness has not yet been successfully concluded; we have secured the high grounds, but there is much that is armed and dangerous, prowling around in the lowlands of the national psyche. There is still a low-grade fever in the US body politic; and we better make damn sure it does not flare up again.

This summer and the fall to come are of great importance to us all.

The economic stimulus package was not big enough, and too much of it was wasted on tax cuts. That's what Krugman and other enlightened economists said at the time of its passing. Words of Power documented their misgivings. The stimulus can still have a positive impact, and do much of what it was intended to do; IF, and it is a big IF, Obama and the House and Senate leadership succeed in the two other profound issues identified as the top legislative priorities for the rest of this year, i.e., healthcare and climate change.

Just as the economic stimulus package was unsatisfactory, these two bills (IF they pass) will no doubt also be unsatisfactory. But taken together, the three infusions of reality (in spite of their shortcomings) may indeed instigate a chemical reaction that will lead to further change, i.e., accelerated and meaningful change, on all three fronts.

Of course, in a healthy mainstream, Romm and Hansen would be debating on Sunday morning news programs; but if one of the networks ever covered the Climate Crisis on a Sunday morning, they would face either Romm or Hansen off against a Climate Change denier, just to waste more of our time. But, no, Romm and Hansen are debating in the Huffington Post, not on Fork the Nation or Meat the Press.

Meanwhile, the truth is that both Romm and Hansen are right. The bill does not go far enough, as Hansen says. But as Romm says Hansen's carbon tax is simply political suicide. Of course, as a nation and a species we are committing suicide by even playing politics with this issue. I commend both pieces to you.

Although honestly Hansen is getting himself arrested in W. VA these days, and that carries some serious credibility. The issue is a dire one, this is an emergency; and inside Beltwayistan, even proponents are not communicating the appropriate sense of urgency to the public.

If the Obama administration and the House and Senate leadership fail to deliver on healthcare and energy, and the stimulus package is left to twist slowly in the wind, we will be in big trouble; if the economy goes through the basement floor, having already fallen from the penthouse, and then plunges into the chasm below; if we are attacked again, 9/11-style or worse; then Obama's fate will be worse than that of either Clinton (two terms with little more than peace in Northern Ireland to show for it, in the end) or Carter (one term, and little more to show for it than the Camp David accord, in the end).

But I also understand the nature of entrenched power, and how inter-connected all of it is, and I tell you if you think that Obama-Biden can take on the healthcare insurance industry lobby, as well as the energy sector lobby, while at the same time fighting the financial services sector lobby, then you are hopelessly naive. (And in the context of this post, I have not even mentioned the Military-Industrial Complex, or the demands of dealing with it.) Show me a general strike for universal healthcare, show me massive non-violent civil disobedience against the building of coal power plants, show me widespread consumer boycotts, and then I would think differently about the options available to Obama-Biden.

In the absence of such demonstrative maturity, I suggest that the struggle of Obama-Biden will look more like Akido than steelcage fighting, i.e., using your opponents' own strength against them rather than simply overpowering them with brute force.

It is going to take a long time, and a lot of careful work, to defuse this bomb.

We must turn the page on the economy, healthcare and the environment; and dog-ear those pages that cry out for accountability on treason, torture, the theft of elections, and the rest of it.

Instituting a clean public option on healthcare (no triggers, no co-opts, etc.) and a cap and trade system on carbon emissions will turn the page. These two breakthroughs may well unleash the forward motion of history, which will in turn demand from us the full greening of the energy sector and the transformation of healthcare into a single-payer system.

If we win these battles, and survive the mid-term, we can spend quite awhile on those many dog-eared pages. (Indeed, by then the special prosecutor's investigation could both be gaining traction and expanding in scope.) But if winter comes, and there is no public option, and no cap and trade system (and no special prosecutor), you and I must take stock of where we are, what should be next, and who we are willing to stand behind.

If the Obama administration and the House and Senate leadership do not succeed on healthcare and climate change, Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachman, Newt Gingrich, et al may not seem so ridiculous anymore. They will have gotten the opening they are positioning themselves to take advantage of; and they will be once again, very dangerous. We must not give that opening to them.

Obama is as brilliant a politician as Bill Clinton, and as principled a leader as Jimmy Carter. But as you well remember, both Clinton and Carter failed, albeit in different ways, and for different reasons. Obama is not likely to be Clintonized, but he is vulnerable to be Carterized. We must all keep the lessons of both the Clinton and Carter administrations in front of us.

This is a call for unity, and clarity of mind, and strength of purpose, and ferocity.

Chanting a bitter new rallying cry, thousands of Iranians marched through Tehran Thursday in the latest protest over last month's disputed presidential election, but riot police fired tear gas and blocked them from reaching their intended goal of Tehran University."Mojtaba, we wish you dead, and never to become the leader," was the new cry in the streets, referring to the son of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. According to many analysts, Khamenei's son holds the real power in Iran and along with Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi was responsible for a virtual coup before the votes were counted to keep President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in office.McClatchy, 7-9-09

While the G-8 Stumbles, Weak & Conflicted, There is Clarity on the Streets of Tehran & in the Minds of James Hansen, Jane Hamsher & Joe Stiglitz

By Richard Power

The world is careening toward calamity, in more ways than one; and most of its leaders are either hamstrung or deluded.

The USA, in particular, is at great risk, economically and environmentally; indeed, it is in a more vulnerable position than it has been since the earliest years of its existence.

Time for another reality check, both in Tehran and inside Beltwayistan.

Among those struggling to free Iran from the grips of theocratic dictatorship, there is remarkable clarity.

Consider the remarks of Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Shirin Ebadi: Ebadi, on Tuesday said that the international community should limit its dialogue with Iran, following the violent crackdown on post-election protests ... Ebadi, a human rights lawyer and former judge, said that if negotiations do not result in democratic reforms in Iran, the West should curb its political relations with the Islamic Republic, reports Italy’s ASCA news agency.Washington TV, 7-7-9

Consider the remarks of Ayatollah Mohsen Kadiva: This Iranian form of theocracy has failed. The rights of the Iranian peoples are trampled upon and my homeland is heading towards a military dictatorship. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad behaves like an Iranian Taliban. The supreme leader, Mr. Ali Khamenei, has tied his fate to that of Ahmadinejad, a great moral, but also political mistake.Der Spiegel interview, 7-1-09

On a conference call co-sponsored by the Huffington Post and Where Is My Vote?, Mohsen Makhmalba made some compelling remarks (transcribed by blogger Julie Jigsawnovich): "I spoke yesterday at the European Parliament, asking them not to recognize Ahmadinejad as President. I demanded them to consider the nuclear and the democratic issue as one issue--not as two, because we are facing one dictator government in Iran ... I think that the fate of democracy in Iran and the fate of the world are tied together ... Obama has said there is no difference between Ahmadinejad and Mousavi. If so, there is no difference between Bush and Obama. Ahmadinejad has Hitler as his role model. Mousavi has Ghandi and Mandela as his role models. Iranian people cannot go abroad to ask Obama or Mandela to lead them. The world community cannot dictate which leaders Iranian people choose."Jigsawnovich, 7-9-09

But inside Beltwayistan, as the political establishment wrings its hands over the Climate Crisis, the Healthcare Debacle, the Three Trillion Dollar War, and other disasters, both ongoing and impending, and progressive leaders are forced to fight for unsatisfactory and inadequate solutions; there is little such clarity, and most of what clarity there is rises from the alternative media, and from the voices of dissidents.

Consider what James Hansen has to say about the Waxman-Markey bill: The concentration of CO2 in our atmosphere now stands at 387 parts per million, the highest level in 600,000 years and more than 100 ppm higher than the amount at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. Burning just the oil and gas sitting in known fields will drive atmospheric CO2 well over 400 ppm and ignite a devil's cauldron ... The essential step, then, is to phase out coal emissions over the next two decades. And to declare off limits artificial high-carbon fuels such as tar sands and shale while moving to phase out dependence on conventional petroleum as well. This requires nothing less than an energy revolution based on efficiency and carbon-free energy sources. Alas, we won't get there with the Waxman-Markey bill, a monstrous absurdity hatched in Washington after energetic insemination by special interests ... Dr. James Hansen, Huffington Post, 7-9-09

Consider what Jane Hasmher has to say about the public option: We bailed out the banks to the tune of 2 trillion dollars in the past year, put through an enormous stimulus bill, bailed out the European banks, put through yet another war supplemental, and never asked how we were going to pay for it. We just wrote a bunch of big checks. But now that it has come to taking care of the health of Americans, well, we have to tighten the old belt and it's suddenly "pay-as-you-go." ... Compared to the huge sums we've shelled out without batting an eyelash over the past year, why are we going to have a shitty, compromised plan just so Blanche Lincoln and Olympia Snowe can achieve their objectives of protecting insurance company profits, when for $30 billion more a year we could actually do it right? Why is that suddenly such a big price tag?In short, if we need more economic stimulus, why aren't we talking about health care as economic stimulus?Jane Hamsher, firedoglake (via Common Dreams), 7-9-09Consider what Joe Stiglitz and Linda Blimes have to say about what the foolish military adventure in the desert has done to the US economy: By our accounting, the U.S. has already spent $1 trillion on operations and related defense spending, with more to come -- and it will cost perhaps $2 trillion more to repay the war debt, replenish military equipment and provide care and treatment for U.S. veterans back home ... This wartime spending undoubtedly has been a major contributor to our present economic collapse. The U.S. has waged an expensive war as if it required little or no economic sacrifice, funding the conflict by massive borrowing ... The president has just signed yet another "emergency" supplemental appropriations measure ($80 billion) to fund continuing operations in Iraq and expansion into Afghanistan. This means that for the 30th time since 2001, war spending has been rushed through the budget process without serious scrutiny.Joseph Stiglitz & Linda Blimes, Capitol Times (via Common Dreams), 7-7-09

I do not know what will become of the Iranian uprising.

Nor do I know if the USA will survive the dysfunction and denial it has succumbed to.

But I do know that as long as there is life, there is hope, and we must continue to work for human rights, sustainability and peace for all people.

The British embassy in Indonesia is displaying a large image of Burma’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in downtown Jakarta to coincide with the visit to Burma by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.Irrawaddy, 7-3-09

During a press briefing held in Washington last month [Gration the special envoy of the President Barack Obama] told reporters there is no genocide in Darfur but the "remnants of genocide.” The envoy’s remarks drew widespread criticism by Darfur advocacy groups …Sudan Tribune, 7-3-09

A year after adopting the resolution, Congo remains the worst place on the planet to be a woman. Over 12 years, in a regional economic war for resources, hundreds of thousands of women and girls have been raped and tortured, their bodies destroyed by unimaginable acts. Eve Ensler, Washington Post, 6-30-09

From Darfur, West Virginia, Downtown Jakarta, California & the Congo -- a Collective Cry for Freedom on Independence Day 2009

By Richard Power

Life is a oneness. Everyone and everything everywhere is connected.

Two decades ago, I had lunch with a brilliant French venture capitalist. He was bemoaning his country's fate, ranking as it did below the state of California, in terms of economic power. He told me he was returning to France to do something about it.

Now California has fallen into shadow and flirts with chaos.

No, not because of that French venture capitalist, but because of Howard Jarvis, Ronald Reagan, Ken Lay and the doctrine of Selfishness that they and their ilk have promoted over the years.

But how many Californians are willing to acknowledge it?

What has happened to California? What has happened to the USA?

These are the questions that should preoccupy us on this Independence Day.

Glenn Beck wrapping himself in the mantle of Tom Paine is as absurd as Joseph Goebbels wrapping himself in the mantle of Anne Frank. In the 1700s, Beck would have been shilling for the Tyrant and for the East India Trading Company, just he now shills for the scions of corporatism (i.e., Mussolini's preferred synonym for "fascism").

The rebellion of the colonies was not against taxation, it was against "taxation without representation." Today, in the USA, over two centuries after our revolution, it is still possible, albeit difficult, for us to throw our elected representatives out of office and replace them with others who vow to be more responsive.

There are worse afflictions than higher taxes, e.g.:

Not having a job

Having your few months of unemployment "insurance" run out

Having no health "insurance"

Paying more than you can afford for health "insurance" and still having your claim denied by those parasites that have affixed themselves, like blood-swollen ticks, to the relationship to you and your doctor

There are also other woes worse than higher taxes, e.g.:

Collapsing infrastructure (already underway)

The disruption of food and water distribution (closer then you might imagine)

Large segments of the populace suffering from diminished mental capacity and informational malnourishment (mission accomplished)

What has happened to us?

Wars, the saying goes, are what happens when diplomats believe their own b.s.

Well, economic and environmental ruin are what happens when corporate executives believe their own b.s.

In a powerful Washington Post op-ed piece, A President Breaks Hearts in Appalachia, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. manifests a courage worthy of Independence Day:

Mountaintop removal coal mining is the worst environmental tragedy in American history. When will the Obama administration finally stop this Appalachian apocalypse?If ever an issue deserved President Obama's promise of change, this is it. Mining syndicates are detonating 2,500 tons of explosives each day -- the equivalent of a Hiroshima bomb weekly ...President Obama should go to Appalachia and see mountaintop removal. My father visited Appalachia in 1966 and was so horrified by strip mining -- then in its infancy -- that he made it a key priority of his political agenda ...The coal industry provides only 2 percent of the jobs in Central Appalachia. Wal-Mart employs more people than the coal companies in West Virginia ...Obama has the authority to end mountaintop removal, without further action from Congress and without formal rulemaking. He just needs to make the coal barons obey the law. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Washington Post, 7-3-09

Meanwhile, throughout the world, too many calls for freedom remain unanswered.

Like RFK, Jr., British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is deserving of respect this weekend:

The British embassy in Indonesia is displaying a large image of Burma’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in downtown Jakarta to coincide with the visit to Burma by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The image is being projected on a large banner located at the perimeter of the Bundaran HI traffic circle in the Indonesian capital. The three-day action began on Thursday and ends at sunset on Saturday … The British embassy said in a statement that the image of Suu Kyi was being shown to mark two important events—Ban’s visit to Burma, which began on Friday, and Suu Kyi’s trial.Irrawaddy, 7-3-09

What would it have cost the USA to join Britain in this highly visible and symbolical important protest?

Half a year into the new administration, is the US government continuing to fail the women of Darfur and Congo?

It is getting increasingly difficult to remain positive in this regard.

Darfur rebels urged the US administration to review its approach in dealing with the Sudanese government saying the current constructive engagement with Khartoum government is harmful for a just resolution of the six year conflict in Western Sudan.Scott Gration the special envoy of the President Barack Obama pressed the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) in a meeting held last week in the Chadian capital Ndjamena to sign a ceasefire agreement despite the non-implementation of goodwill agreement since five months as held by the rebel group.During a press briefing held in Washington last month Gration told reporters there is no genocide in Darfur but the "remnants of genocide”.The envoy’s remarks drew widespread criticism by Darfur advocacy groups and the US State Department issue a statement the next day to reaffirm the official position of the US administration over the genocide label.Sudan Tribune, 7-3-09

A year after adopting the resolution, Congo remains the worst place on the planet to be a woman. Over 12 years, in a regional economic war for resources, hundreds of thousands of women and girls have been raped and tortured, their bodies destroyed by unimaginable acts. The Security Council's implementation of Resolution 1820 in Congo -- the very place that inspired it -- has been an utter failure ... President Obama and U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice should send a very clear message to the world. It is within U.S. power, as a member of the Security Council, to push for measures to end impunity and to carve out an enduring peace through careful diplomacy for the people of Congo ... The women of eastern Congo are enduring their 12th year of sexual terrorism. The girl children born of rape are now being raped. What will it take for the United Nations to finally do something meaningful to stop the violence? The women are waiting. Eve Ensler, Washington Post, 6-30-09

To read Nowhere to Turn: Failure to Protect, Support and Assure Justice for Darfuri Women, a recent report from Physicians for Human Rights, click here.

To read DR Congo: Massive Increase in Attacks on Civilians, a recent Human Rights Watch statement on the facts on the ground in the Congo, click here.

This blog now focuses on exploring new language for the truths of the ancient future, and reflects insights into Vajrayana Buddha Dharma, Kashmir Shiva-Sakti philosophy, Hatha and Tantra Yoga, the Shamanic path, and other aspects of the world's collective mystical heritage. It also offers commentary on art, music, literature, human rights, sustainability, independent journalism, economic justice and the Climate Crisis.

For much of his life, Power has worked in the fields of security and intelligence. He has delivered briefings and led training in forty countries, and was an adviser to governments and corporations. His views have been featured in interviews on CNN, PBS, NPR and the BBC, and quoted in mainstream news media, including Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times, Washington Post, Reuters and Associated Press.